Annual festival on July 28 provides an opportunity for artists and performers with disabilities to showcase their talents

HONOLULU — The community is invited to participate in a day of music, art, food, fellowship and fun, and hear personal testimonies about the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 at the fourth annual Art Enabled festival, "Celebrating Ability with Creativity," on Saturday, July 28, 2007, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Kakaʻako Waterfront Park Amphitheatre. Artists and performers with disabilities will have a unique opportunity to showcase their talents and sell their artwork at the festival, which commemorates the anniversary of the civil rights legislation.

Entertainment at this year‘s event will include an American Sign Language-performance by Ed Chevy, a member of the all deaf band Beethoven‘s Nightmare, as well as dance performances by The Movement Center, Hawaiian hula and chanting by Cavin Castaneda, and Hawaiian falsetto singing by Kale Peters.

Established in 2003, Art Enabled is a free annual festival that celebrates the arts and disability in our community, and promotes inclusion through an event that welcomes ALL and enables everyone to participate.

Through this event, organizers aim to build a sense of community through creative arts with the hope that people will form new connections and make lasting friendships while promoting disability pride. Additionally, children who attend Art Enabled are able to connect with adult artists and adult performers in the community as potential role models.

Art Enabled is sponsored by the Center on Disability Studies (CDS) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa; the Alliance for Inclusion Advancement-Hawaiʻi, a CDS project that targets veterans and adults with disabilities over the age of 14 in an effort to foster volunteerism and national service; and the Department of Special Education in the UH Mānoa College of Education, the primary public university unit in Hawaiʻi to offer teacher training programs in special education.

For more information about Art Enabled, call 956-9202.

ABOUT THE CENTER ON DISABILITY STUDIESA research unit in the College of Education, CDS works to accomplish its mission to support the quality of life, community inclusion, and self-determination of all persons with disabilities and their families through education, training, service, research, evaluation, and dissemination activities. July 1, 2007 marks the beginning of its 20th year and the starting point for a year of celebration. Monthly events are being planned to celebrate the many thousands of people with disabilities and their families across the state of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Basin who have been touched in different ways by the initiative and the projects that CDS has undertaken during its 20 years. For information about the Center on Disability Studies‘ 20th anniversary, contact Charmaine Crockett at cccrocke@hawaii.edu or visit the Center‘s website at www.cds.hawaii.edu.